


Intermission 3: Considerations

by writerx75



Series: Stuck [19]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Boys Kissing, Fluff, Language, M/M, Plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:01:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4691261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerx75/pseuds/writerx75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Separately, Ichigo and Renji both start thinking about the future, and how they fit into it for each other...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Intermission 3: Considerations

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty much all plot this time, but I think you'll like it because it's about the boys' evolving relationship. Also, many references to past Acts in this one, so as always, it's recommended to read these stories in sequence.
> 
> Yay for my wonderful editor-in-chief, [gwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwoman/pseuds/gwoman) and her help on this series!
> 
> Note: This series was written before/during the Winter War arc, and I set this story at some vague point in the future when (I assumed) things have gone back (more or less) to normal. Canon continues to be violated, and will be for the remainder of these stories. : )
> 
> Disclaimers: I don't own these characters and don't make any money for these writings; I'm just creating these stories to entertain myself and (hopefully) you.
> 
> The people in this story are fictional, and so you might see them doing things that aren't strictly safe from a sexual standpoint. You are a real person, so please be safe when you play! If you want more information about how that all works, please look [here](http://www.scarleteen.com/article/sexuality/safe_sound_sexy_a_safer_sex_how_to) or here...or there are plenty of other sites with good info on the web, too, so check them out and be safe.
> 
> Oh, yes, one more thing. All of the people depicted (or referred to) in sexual situations in my stories are intended and considered to be by the author of the legal age of consent in any jurisdiction, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. OK?

Ichigo was _not_ obsessing about it. Not at all.

He sighed as he tapped his pencil on the desk and looked out the window, watching the bright sunlight pouring into his apartment for a moment, then tried to focus on his books again. Just a couple more finals at this point, he reminded himself. Another few days of studying and then he'd be done with finals for the year. Assuming he passed everything (which he was pretty sure he would, being confident that he'd done well so far), he could then begin his two years of internship.

Ichigo tried to feel excited, to look forward to what was coming, to tell himself that it was just one step closer to being an actual doctor, but he didn't feel that way at all. He felt worried and out of sorts instead.

The situation with the arrancar was hard to predict; some weeks they only got the normal hollow traffic or very little of it, and other weeks there were large numbers of arrancar that showed up. He hadn't really been privy to the decision, but it seemed that Soul Society had put together a policy that everyone who'd successfully battled arrancar before was on call in some sort of weird rotation to come to the living world if there was a situation that the people normally stationed there couldn't handle. Ichigo liked being able to catch up with some of his shinigami friends more often, especially those he hadn't seen for a while, but he really wasn't crazy about the reason.

It had been a few weeks since the last large group of them had shown up, but it was still fresh on Ichigo's mind. There had been a few arrancar that had shown up the morning of that day. Ichigo, his friends, and the resident shinigami had managed to successfully finish them off, but then a large number had shown up later that night. He'd been sleeping when they'd arrived, and Ichigo wasn't sure how long his substitute alarm had been going off when he woke up, sitting up instead of rolling over on his sore arm, the one he'd received a long scratch on during his fight earlier that morning.

He could feel that there was a small group across town, maybe two or three of them, but it seemed they were already engaged by someone with a much higher reiatsu than their own. Another group was fighting nearby, and it felt like there were at least five arrancar, more powerful than the ones far away. A couple of people were fighting them who were quite powerful also, but the power balance seemed to rest with the arrancar. At least one person engaging the arrancar felt very familiar, however, and Ichigo couldn't help smiling to himself as he recognized Renji's reiatsu and left out the sliding glass door as quickly as he could.

By the time he arrived several minutes later (he was having trouble tracking down their exact location because they kept moving), he saw Renji and Kira each finishing off an opponent, having somehow backed them into one another so they could strike simultaneously. Kira was left with one arrancar, but Renji was facing off with two until Ichigo dropped down onto the street next to him.

“Nice of you to join us,” the redhead said, but Ichigo could see the warmth in his lover’s eyes.

He could barely remember the features of the arrancar he’d been paired with, but his opponent was a talker, going on at length about how one day he and his friends would be ruling this place. Ichigo didn’t have any trouble keeping up with the arrancar's moves, but he wasn’t able to muster the type of speed he was used to and all his limbs felt a little sluggish. He’d already had it in mind to ask Orihime to look at his arm tomorrow because he was starting to wonder if it was infected or poisoned or something.

After what seemed like forever battling the overly talkative arrancar, Ichigo noticed that Renji and Kira had both finished the opponents they’d been facing. When Renji managed to catch Ichigo's eye a moment later, they worked together to quickly end Ichigo's fight. While he was glad to have struck the final blow, Ichigo felt a little embarrassed to have finished last. However, he had to mentally admit that without Renji's assistance, the fight could have gone on for quite a while before he would have been able to get the advantage in his current state.

Ichigo felt a little unsteady on his feet as he watched the defeated arrancar begin to dissipate, but as he looked over at Renji, he could feel a smile starting up on his face and a bit of his energy beginning to return. The redhead shot a big grin at him and stepped forwards quickly, moving over to Ichigo. When they kissed a moment later, Ichigo could taste blood in his mouth, but he wasn't sure if it was his or Renji's. He felt slightly dizzy when the redhead pulled back, so Ichigo opened his eyes.

“You look like crap, you know,” his lover told him, grin still in place. “What the hell have you been doing today?”

Ichigo pulled up his sleeve. “Fighting with arrancar this morning. I guess you were sleeping in,” Ichigo replied, smirking rather grimly.

The look on Renji's face made his smile disappear, however. “Shit, Ichigo, that looks like whoever got you used poison. Can you-”

Renji swore as his soul communicator going off interrupted them. He looked at it and glanced over at Kira. “It's not near here; we're going to have to open a gate.”

The blonde nodded in response and began making the necessary preparations. Renji turned back to Ichigo and kissed him fiercely.

“I've got to go,” he said, still looking very seriously at Ichigo. “Go see Orihime tonight. I'm not fucking around; arrancar poison can be deadly. Go, OK?”

And seconds later he was standing in the empty street, the memory of Renji's concerned backwards glance upon going through the gate fresh in his mind. Ichigo figured that was why he found himself on the way to Orihime's place not long afterwards, trying to flash-step and stumbling at least part of the way.

Fortunately he found her awake, as she almost always seemed to be when there was a late night fight. When he asked her about it she answered breezily, but he could sense her hidden concern.

“I usually wake up when some of you are fighting,” she said, quickly looking at him from under her eyelashes. “You know, just in case someone needs me afterwards.”

He sipped the tea she'd prepared as she worked on him, a process that took longer than normal due to the fact that the poison had spread a bit, Orihime explained. His tired mind wandered a bit as she chattered on about some of the things she and Ishida had been up to lately, but he was sharp enough not to ask about the new ring on her left hand; he figured the two of them would let their friends know as soon as they were ready. It was very late when he got home that night, and Ichigo had been glad that his classes the next day were all in the afternoon.

And since that day a few weeks ago, Ichigo thought with a sigh, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it. How the rest of the things that made up his life seemed to keep shrinking in importance compared to fighting by Renji's side. He also hadn't been able to stop the dreams he had most nights where he was forced to watch Renji in the distance, wanting to help him battle the numerous opponents he was facing, but unable to close the gap between them.

Ichigo frowned when he realized he was staring out the window again, as if the sunny, summery day held answers for him that he couldn't find elsewhere. Finally he sighed and stood up, grabbed his keys, and left the apartment. _Maybe a walk will clear my head_ , he found himself thinking, but minutes later he was cursing himself as he found his feet taking him in a familiar direction. He stopped in his tracks, thinking that maybe he should just go back and force himself to continue studying, but then he shook his head and continued. _He's the only person I know that I can really ask this question_ , Ichigo realized, sighing. _At least I can ask him and then forget about it._

He thought as he came through the front door that maybe his father hadn't taken a break for lunch that day, but then he realized Isshin had just been hidden by the refrigerator door as the man ducked out from behind it and took a flying leap at Ichigo.

“My son!” he cried, somewhat muffled at the end as Ichigo dodged and used Isshin's momentum to slam him into a wall.

“Cut the crap, dad, I'm here to ask you about something,” Ichigo said, still a little annoyed from his walk over to the house in the heat.

As he listened, Isshin's eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? Looks like something serious, too. You'll have to defeat daddy if you want his advice, though!” the man cried, pushing himself off the wall to launch another attack at his son.

Five minutes later, and at the expense of everything formerly on the kitchen counters and half the contents of the shelves in the living room now being scattered across the floor, Ichigo was victorious. He sat on his father's chest with a fist in the older man's face.

“Are you going to admit you lost, or do I have to beat you up some more?” he asked, scowling at Isshin.

“Masaki!” Isshin called to the poster of his wife. “You'd be so proud of your strong son-”

He was forced to stop to cough as Ichigo punched him in the shoulder. “Dad, I mean it!”

Isshin sighed. “All right, all right, I am defeated for the moment. So what is it that's so important?”

Ichigo paused for a moment, looking hard at his father before asking the question. “What was it that made you give up everything you'd known and worked hard for in order to marry mom? How did you know she was the one for you?”

Isshin raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to say something that Ichigo _just knew_ was going to be mocking, so Ichigo shook his fist in his father's face again, which caused Isshin to roll his eyes. After a moment, however, Isshin began looking thoughtful, as if he was actually considering the question. In response, Ichigo shifted a little and sat on the floor beside his father, thinking that if he couldn't breathe very well, he probably couldn't answer. Ichigo was keeping a close eye on Isshin in case the man decided to attack again, but his father started to speak after a couple minutes of silently staring at the ceiling.

“Well, the longer I knew your mother, the more everything else in my life came in second to being by her side. Not that there was anything wrong with anything I'd done before, but it was just clearer and clearer to me that being with her was the most important thing.”

It was on the tip of Ichigo's tongue to ask Isshin if he regretted what he'd done now, since they hadn't had all that much time together, but he shut his mouth as he saw the look on his father's face. One of the family pictures that had ended up on the floor was right beside them, and the softened expression on Isshin's face as he gazed at his wife in the photo answered the question Ichigo hadn't had to ask. Ichigo cleared his throat softly before he spoke again.

“I have one more question I want to ask you,” he began, only to be interrupted by his father.

“If it involves borrowing money, you're going to have to defeat me in more than hand to hand,” Isshin said, fixing his son with a steely gaze.

“OK, I'll meet you in Urahara's basement in ten minutes,” Ichigo replied, shooting his father a confident grin.  
________________________________________________________

Renji sighed as he looked out at what he'd always secretly thought was the best view in Soul Society. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the view, however; it was his thoughts that were bothering him. He'd only found this spot accidentally; looking over from one of the most remote training grounds that almost no one used, he'd noticed this amazingly tall tree. When he went to investigate and decided to flash-step up the tree, with a little trial and error (OK, so some of the 'errors' involved narrowly escaping amazingly long drops to the ground) he'd found the branch he sat on now, thick and sturdy but near enough to the top of the tree so that the forest beyond and Soul Society glittering behind were both clearly visible and laid out almost as if he were looking down over a map.

It wasn't enough to distract him from his thoughts, though, which continued circling back to Ichigo these days. He recalled the last time he'd seen his lover, just a glance over his shoulder as he'd gone through the gate after an arrancar fight and on his way to another one. Renji had been upset to find out that Ichigo had already had a bad enough injury from a conflict earlier that day that it had affected his fighting skill, but he'd tried to be careful not to show that to his lover. Instead, he'd taken one look at that angry red line surrounded by pale skin and told him to seek out Orihime. He still remembered the last image he'd seen of Ichigo, standing on the street alone in the dark, looking a bit lost.

Renji had wanted to stay, to take Ichigo to get healed himself, and to help take care of him afterwards, but instead he'd been called away to the next fight. He cradled his forehead in his hand for a moment, trying to think. After a minute or two, however, he raised his eyes because he could sense someone approaching. He was surprised to feel a familiar presence quickly drawing near.

He gave a small smile as he watched Rukia flash-step her way up the tree, admiring the grace she always seemed to display. _Of course_ , he thought, his smile widening, _her size probably has something to do with that._

When she arrived, she daintily sat across from him on the branch and grinned wickedly as she faced him. “I heard you had a few hours off and that you were moping around about something, so I knew where you'd be. Spill your guts, Renji!”

She leaned forward to whack him on the shoulder as she finished speaking. Renji just looked back at her with a little smile, unmoved due to the fact that his back was braced against the tree trunk. “It's nice to see you, too, Rukia,” he replied, finishing with a cheesy grin.

“Don't you smile at me like that, Renji! I hear you've been distracted out in the field lately, which is something you can't afford. Kira wanted me to talk to you about it.”

Renji sighed with a little annoyance. “That guy has a big mouth sometimes.”

Rukia hit him in the shoulder again. “It's not _his_ fault that you've got something on your mind that's bothering you and you won't talk to anyone about it! So, what's the problem?”

The redhead turned to look at his friend, but as he met her eyes he found he wasn't easily able to put into words all that he wanted to say. As he turned away again he didn't miss her annoyed exhale.

“You two!” she said, and Renji caught the annoyed shake of her head as he glanced back at her. “When I had some free time a couple of weeks ago and saw Ichigo in the living world, he was doing the same thing you are now. He looked so happy to see me when I got there, but I think it was only because he hoped _you_ were with me. When you didn't turn up he started scowling again like he always used to, and he didn't have anything to talk about other than school. He looked so worn out, too.”

She looked thoughtful and worried as she finished, and then glared up at Renji, waiting. He looked back down at her and finally started speaking.

“That's pretty much what I've been thinking,” Renji replied. “With all the arrancar that show up in Karakura, it seems like he's fighting way too often. At this rate, it's only going to be a matter of time before he gets worn down enough...”

He didn't finish his thought, _couldn't_ really because he didn't want to admit to himself the idea that had been creeping around in the back of his head. It was impossible to think of Ichigo ever being defeated by anything, at least permanently, but even the strongest of people can't fight an army alone and at least occasionally need sleep. Also, because he’d fought so many of the new arrancar and he’d read all the reports that had been coming in about them, Renji was aware that each group that was sent to the living world seemed to be a little better than the last. When the new arrancar first started showing up, most of them could be defeated fairly easily, but there had been several situations recently where people had been forced to use bankai to defeat them, and there had been worsening injuries and sometimes fatalities in dealing with them. When he looked back up, Rukia met his gaze squarely.

“So, what are you going to do about it?” Her voice was quiet but challenging. “I bet the two of you haven't seen each other too much since all of this started, either.”

Renji gave her an evil glare. “You can shut up about that,” he growled. “I was trying to think about what to do, but someone showed up to bug me.”

“Hit a nerve, did I?” she asked, laughing. “OK, I'll go if you want me to, but you have to figure it out or Kira will probably be mad that he ever talked to me about this. And I mean it when I say you'd better figure it out, Renji, because you know everyone has to be sharp out there.”

Rukia stood up but had managed to catch Renji's eye and was giving him a very serious look. He nodded.

“Yeah, you're right,” he agreed. As she turned to go he added, “Hey, Rukia...thanks.”

She gave him a small final smile before she disappeared from the branch, and Renji smiled in return as he felt her reiatsu disappearing in the distance.

He sighed as he leaned back against the tree, gazing off into the distance again as he tried to think. What did he want to do? Renji was surprised as the answer came back to him quickly and clearly; he wanted to be with Ichigo in order to face whatever they had to face together.

Suddenly, he noticed the little breeze that played through the leaves surrounding him and danced over his skin, the haze in the distance over the forest, the singing of the bugs around him, and the next breath he took. _Is this what it feels like, to realize you never want to be parted from someone?_

Reality seemed to crash in around him then, and Renji found himself thinking of a million reasons why what he desired would never work. Shaking his head to let all of that go, he took a deep breath and started trying to think of ideas to make it work, so that they could stand together. After a while, he collected his thoughts and nodded, satisfied that he'd come up with a number of good ideas, any of which could possibly get approved.

_Now_ , he thought, a sly smile crossing his face, _to figure out what Ichigo thinks about it..._

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments about what you liked and what you thought could be improved would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
> 
> -WriterX


End file.
